Legacy of the Last Virtus
by AccessBlade
Summary: After she destroyed their world, the Virtus pursued Jenova to Gaia and weakened her enough for the Cetra to seal her away. Now 2,000 years later, Jenova awakens from her slumber to terrorize the world alongside her son. Standing in her way? A group of people wronged by an evil corporation and me, an assassin from another world who is a descendant of the very same Virtus.
1. Assassin

**Looking over what I've written for Memories of a Nobody I have come to the ultimate conclusion that... the story isn't all that great. The writing is fine and there are a few grammatical errors, ones that I had overlooked during the editing process, but then I realized I hadn't planned it out all that much.**

**Or rather, the information was all in my head. **

**So now I'm doing a major re-haul of it now instead of about, say, twenty chapters later. **

**I am tempted to switch to third pov, but I think I've gotten a grip on how to write in first so I'll continue the story that way.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII or any of the compilation. I do, however, own the OCs Isabelle Maxwell and Rosalyn Maxwell. **

* * *

**Assassin**

I guess I should tell you a little about myself.

My name is Isabelle Maxwell and I'm an assassin.

Just hear me out before you start panicking, alright? I may go around killing people and breaking the law, but at the very least I'm not a psychopath.

Trust me on this when I say that psychopaths are not people you want to go up against. Not unless you're certain that they won't be able to sweet talk you into doing whatever they want and that you have a powerful weapon on your person to kill them with when things begin to get ugly.

But back to the story.

At a very young age I learned some of life's cruelest and harshest lessons.

I learned that everything you loved and valued could be taken away from you within the span of a moment and that life was a very fragile thing.

When I was five years old, my parents were killed in a house fire. At least that was what they told me then. I eventually discovered that the fire wasn't accidental at all. It was a cover up for two other crimes; the murders of two out of three people I had ever loved.

With our parents gone, our home reduced to burnt rubble and no immediate relatives to take us in and give us a new home, my older sister Rosalyn and I were sent to an orphanage to live out the remainders of our childhood there.

Living in that orphanage had been a scarring experience, but considering how the rest of my life would go... it wasn't all that bad. The rules there was pretty much every person for themselves and the stronger and older ones who had lived in the orphanage longer than the other kids were usually the ones who came out on top.

The adults who ran the place weren't bad people and did their best to look after the children who lived there but they were understaffed, overworked, and had limited funds to work with. If that wasn't bad enough, it seemed that new kids kept coming in every week. So as it was, the staff didn't have the resources or time to make sure that everyone was playing nice and that the new kid wasn't being traumatized by the ones who seemed to think that making their life miserable was an initiation process.

I should know. I had been on the receiving end of that misery.

But compared to how my life would play out after that? The orphanage was practically a _Hawaiian vacation_.

It was thanks to my older sister Rosalyn that the other kids soon left me alone. When we had arrived at our temporary home, she soon became the oldest child living there and therefore the one who maintained the most authority among the kids. It didn't take her long to figure out what was going on, but when she did she made it very clear that she wouldn't tolerate the bullying or anyone picking on me. And that anyone who said otherwise would have to answer to _her. _

After our parents untimely deaths, I depended on my sister for _everything_.

I couldn't have imagined what it was like for her then. On top of losing our home, our parents, and handling her grief, she also had to do her best to look after me as well. A bratty five year old self who didn't understand that she couldn't see her parents any more or that the reason we had to move into an over crowded house full of mean and noisy children was because we no longer had a home.

I didn't understand a lot of things back then and the discovery of my ignorance as I got older disgusted me. Had I really been that much of an ungrateful pest? My sister was a saint for putting up with me.

Rosalyn was an incredibly strong person to have been able to endure all that. Unfortunately, I didn't discover this fact until long after her disappearance.

Among other things.

Four years after my sister and I were orphaned, my life took another drastic turn.

When she was eighteen years old, Rosalyn Maxwell vanished without a trace. One day she was there, saying good bye as she went out to her full-time job so that she could earn money to support herself and her kid sister and the next... she was gone.

No indication that she had been forcefully kidnapped or killed... just gone.

The police did their best to look into her disappearance, leaving no stone untouched in their search for her. But no matter how much they looked they couldn't come up with anything. Eventually, as months passed, the police had no choice but to grimly drop the investigation and mark the case as being unsolved until any evidence or clues turned up saying other wise.

And at the age of nine, I understood perfectly what I failed to when I was five. That my only remaining family... wasn't there any more. I was completely and utterly on my own with no older sister to shield me from the world this time just like when are parents were killed.

Life wasn't through with me then. Unfortunately or fortunately... it all depends on how you looked at it, but if you want my opinion it would have been in the 'unfortunately' category.

A few months later after the fact that the world was a cold, unforgiving, uncompromising place was burned permanently into my mind the orphanage was paid a visit by two people I soon learned very fast to hate.

A man and a woman who claimed that they had known my father came to the place and said that they wanted to adopt me and raise me in place of their deceased friend. They had recently learned that Luke Maxwell had been killed years ago and had been greatly saddened by the news. Since then, they had been trying to track down me and my sister so that they could offer us their home and give us a stable lifestyle.

After filling out several papers and going through procedures, they became my legal guardians and took me to where they lived.

The couple knew my dad alright. What they purposely omitted to me and the orphanage caretakers was that they were his associates back when he was still an _assassin. _And that the only reason the couple adopted me (and my sister had she not been missing) was because they thought that we had _potential. _

_Potential _to become a deadly killer of un-parallel strength like my ancestors before me.

_Potential_ to become an assassin like my lineage dictated. Just like my dad before he had met mom.

My so-called legal guardians gave me two choices: either train as an assassin under them and do what they said or I could meet the same fate as my parents.

Like any nine year old who would have been half frightened out of their minds in my situation like I was, I picked the first choice without considering the consequences they would later have in the future. My only thought then was to ensure my survival... even if it meant at the cost of others.

I rose to their expectations of _potential _as they described it and then surpassed even that. I figured out that they were training me so that they could use me for their own gain, but only too a certain point so that they could control me.

I guess I became too powerful and deadly because one day they tried to kill me before I could turn on them. Ironically, that decision turned out to be their undoing as I ended up killing them instead. I had contemplated the idea for a long time, but it wasn't until their attempt to do me in that I actually acted on it.

Unfortunately by that time, the time that I had freed myself from their control, it was too late to escape the life of an assassin. So isolated I was from other people that my socialization skills were non-existent. So carefully trained that the only thing I knew was how to kill people. So tainted in blood that in society's eyes, I was nothing but a criminal.

Even if I had tried to return to a life of normalcy, before everything, I wouldn't have known what to do.

But then again, some lives weren't meant for normalcy.

Something I learned when the once ruling god of the legendary Virtus dropped me into the world of Gaia.

* * *

**Heh, heh, done! Took me all of yesterday and I had to do some editing this morning until I was satisfied. **

**This was what I originally intended for Isabelle to be from the beginning... but since the amnesia factor wasn't really working out that great, I decided to go with this. **

**This is just the prologue, but when I get to the first chapter I'll be dropping the character right into the action of Gongaga. **


	2. Ares

**Wow, planning does do wonders for a story. I'm not as stuck as I was before when I wrote this!**

**...**

**...okay, yeah, that's not something I should be proud of but whatever. On to the story!  
**

**Added note: I finally decided to get a beta-reader. Well, actually I have two beta-ing this chapter but one of them got back to me today. Really grateful to Sorrow has a Human Heart for this, and Crimson Mooon as well. But man... that was a lot of mistakes. Though I am grateful for Sorrow's editing and advice; I knew there were mistakes, but I didn't realize that there were that many!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own FFVII. I do, however, own the characters Isabelle Maxwell and her MIA sister Rosalyn. **

* * *

**Ares**

"She's in here!"

"Leave some of her for me! I want to make the fucking bitch pay for what she's done!"

"Let's get her!"

The voices that demanded my blood to be spilled, my body to be on the ground lifeless like a broken marionette with its strings cut sounded distant. Even though my mind said that they were a lot closer than my blurred senses were letting on. The entire world was spinning, and black dots were littering my vision, but I didn't pay any attention to my own body trying to shut down on me.

I had a job to do and failure was _not an option_.

I was carefully concealed behind a stack of crates on the second level, out of their line of sight, but where I could still see them perfectly so that I knew _when _to press the button. Even if they discovered my hiding location, they wouldn't have been able to get to me right away, since I already destroyed the only way up. Yet destroying the staircase would only delay them temporarily, as my pursuers would stop at nothing to make sure that I was dead.

Though the delay was enough for what I was about to do next.

The pursuers thought that hiding in an abandoned warehouse was a last ditch resort on my part to escape their clutches.

After two weeks of constant fighting, pursuit, and running myself ragged, they believed that I was getting rusty and careless in my efforts of getting away from them. I may have already annihilated more than half of their organization, but I was only one person, right? Well...

Pride always came before the fall.

My pursuers were right about the fact that I was literally on my last legs; my body had already reached its limit and I was pushing past even _that_.

My sight was blurred from the lack of proper sleep, and the pounding migraine I had right now was threatening to split my skull from the inside out. It was taking every ounce of strength and focus I had to concentrate on the daunting task ahead of me.

They thought they had me, but I had effectively lured them into a trap with none of them the wiser.

Now all I had to do was wait.

"She's somewhere up there!"

"There's no escape for you this time, Belladonna!"

"Say your last prayers, because today is the day you die, bitch!"

This was accompanied by various other words that I didn't bother paying attention, to since they were all pretty much saying the same thing.

Despite their threatening words, backed up by the fire arms on their persons, I snorted. Being threatened was nothing new to me, and what they were saying hardly compared to the more disturbing threats I'd gotten in the past.

Really?

These were Alessandro Ferrari's feared men? The ones who tormented the area they ruled over? The ones who had the local police feeding out of the palms of their hands and ignoring the crimes that were happening right in front of them if it had any association with Ferrari? The ones who ruled with an iron fist and could make anyone who stood in their way of dictatorship disappear without a trace?

Then again, I've pretty much taken care of all the competent and dangerous men of the organization. The ones who were chasing me down were the ones who had been at the bottom of the pyramid; remnants of Ferrari's mafia who just wanted revenge for screwing everything up for them. And from what I've seen after two weeks of fighting and running, they weren't all that intelligent; they were the type who needed the higher ups to hold their hands for them and tell them what to do.

Ever since I assassinated their boss point blank, their organization had been falling apart fast. The men directly beneath Alessandro Ferrari in his mafia had been feuding with each other for the vacant position of being boss until I killed _them _off and proceeded to take out the underlings. As you can guess, the rest of the mafia and everyone associated with it were _pissed_.

To add even more fuel to the fire, I had sent the names of everyone who had associated themselves with him to the highest of the authorities: the authorities that I knew weren't under Ferrari's payroll. The list ranged from corrupt politicians to anyone else who would never otherwise be suspected of collaborating with the mafioso.

As you can guess, that landed quite the price on my head. I'm sure that they would have had a few assassins sent after me, but everyone who could afford or hire one was being investigated by the FBI, CIA, and any other law enforcing organization that had been itching to take down Ferrari's set up for a long time.

I had already taken a good chunk of Ferrari's mafia down, and while I was sure that I hadn't gotten _every _person associated with the bastard, the damage had been done. There was no way that they would be able to recover from this, and I only had to hope that the authorities who dealt with this fall out would be competent enough to rein in the mooks I missed.

When I saw the last of the thugs enter the warehouse, I smirked. That was all of them.

I leaned back on to the crate I was sitting against and closed my eyes.

"Cassie, Tyson, this is for you."

The image of a girl with dark red hair and bright blue eyes, followed by one of a sandy haired blond boy with hazel eyes flashed in my mind as I pressed the button that controlled the detonation of all the explosives I had hidden on the ground level.

The reaction was instantaneous. Explosions went off and screams of pain and terror filled the air as the flames consumed everything within their grasp and then quickly reached out for those who hadn't got caught in the blaze the first time.

This would have normally been the time that I made my great escape. With more than half of Ferrari's men dead and the rest dying as the fire licked at their flesh, they would have been too distracted to notice my get away.

I didn't move.

The very gift that Prometheus had given to humanity long ago was now slowly moving towards me, ready to inflict the same fate to the one who had dared to harvest its power.

But I still stayed where I was.

I no longer had the strength to open even my eyes much less move my body and get out of the way.

And besides...

...I didn't really have a reason to live anyway.

I was tired of living. Had been for a long time.

And even if I chose to continue living, all that awaited me was a life of running and death.

Everything that had ever mattered to me was gone.

And the only friends I had ever made were both dead... all thanks to me.

I had _nothing_ left in this world.

This world of emptiness, darkness and pain.

The last thing I was aware of before I lost consciousness was the sound of an explosion in the distance and the searing heat of the flames as the fire finally found me and bathed the world a blazing orange and red.

* * *

The first thought that entered my head when I could think coherently was: _Am I dead? _

I remembered it all with perfect clarity: the yells of Ferrari's bloodthirsty men, the detonations of the carefully hidden explosions, the screams of agony that came after wards and then the comforting darkness that I had allowed to overtake me before the Grim Reaper could arrive on the scene and do his job.

There was no way I could have survived that.

But at the same time, I knew that this wasn't what death felt like, or was supposed to be.

I never heard of death resulting in a pounding migraine that threatened to rip my skull from the inside out. If I was wreathed in flames, then yes, I could believe I was dead and burning in hell.

I forced my eyes open (a feat considering that my body felt as light as lead) and lifted my head to determine where I was once and for all.

...

...

...Where was I?

I pushed myself off the ground, forcing myself into a sitting position since I couldn't stand up. Hell, _sitting up _had taken a lot of effort and remaining upright was taking even more of it.

The world around me spun, but after a few deep breaths I was able to alleviate the dizziness and get a good look at my surroundings.

First thing that came to mind was a starry night. I could see the stars twinkling above me as they would if I were sitting outside during a clear night. But when I looked down, what I saw was as though I were sitting on invisible glass and looking down at the starry night from a higher plane.

"There is no way this is Hell. Heaven, maybe, but what ditzy angel screwed up my papers and landed me up here instead?"

Last I checked, those in my line of work usually got a one-way ticket to Hell since being an assassin meant breaking one of the tenth commandments on a weekly basis, if not daily, depending on how many jobs one decided to take on.

"...this is neither Heaven nor Hell but rather the dimension between worlds. You would have died had I not brought you here."

The voice came from behind me.

Forgetting just how much everything ached and how heavy my body felt seconds ago, I had jumped up on to my feet at the sound of the new comer who had managed to sneak up behind me. I whirled around to face the speaker, hands going for my guns. I was careful to position myself into a defensive stance, which would allow me to switch into the offensive if necessary.

Standing in front of me was a man with long crimson-gold hair that fell past his back. He was decked out in armour as black as the night, wearing a helmet that followed the colouring of his body plating. Complimenting it was a cape of pure silver that draped over his shoulders and cascaded down on to the floor.

And his eyes...

He had the greenest eyes that I had ever seen. Every bit of the man was beautiful, but it was his eyes that hypnotized me. They were a beautiful emerald green that you couldn't bring yourself to look away from, no matter how much you mentally kicked yourself to get things going again.

I had never seen this man until today, but at the same I felt that I had known him for my entire life.

Which was impossible.

The man chuckled, not at all phased by the fact that I was aiming the barrels of my guns at him. "Isabelle Maxwell, put down your weapons. I mean you no harm."

"How the _hell _do you know my name?!" Those who knew my real name were normally the ones trying to kill me. For some reason, my attempted killers did extensive research on me before the initial confrontation that ended with them dying.

The man's emerald green gaze gentled, yet at the same time managed to retain power. "I know all about you, Isabelle, because you are one of my children."

"That does _not _answer my question." I paused. "And you are _not _my dad."

It may have been fourteen years since Luke Maxwell had died, but I still remembered him clearly. He and the man standing in front of me looked nothing alike...

I also did not like the fact that he was referring to me as his child.

"Heh." The man's eyes sparkled with mirth. "I never said I was your biological father, though he is the reason you are descended from the Virtus. To be specific, I know each and every single person who have ties to my people of long ago."

"'Your people'?" I glared at him, not sure where this was going but not liking it either. "Who are you anyways?"

He chuckled.

"I suppose introductions are in order before we further converse. I am Ares, the ruling deity of the Virtus and of their world Valhalla."

There was a tinge of sadness when he said the last part.

I deadpanned, "You're _God?_"

That made _total sense... _Not!_  
_

Ares nodded, "I am one of many that exist in the infinite universes."

Great. So god and the existence of multiple universes. The atheists and realists were going to have a field day with this one.

"_Okay..._" My first thought was to deny his claim and call him crazy. And yet...

One of the absolute essentials you need if you live in the assassin world is to be able to determine whether someone is lying or telling the truth or if there is just something plain wrong with them in general. Being able to read people could make a difference in whether you're being lured into a trap or not. Contrary to belief, it isn't how to kill someone with a hundred and sixty-six different skills that came in handy the most but the ability to read people and determine whether they're enemies. You need to know that they won't stab you in the back, or if they are secretly psychopaths putting on the charm to fool you into letting your guard down.

But examining him, all signs indicated that he was telling truth and nothing but the truth. In fact, he had the gaze of someone so honest that it _hurt _to look at.

I actually looked _away _when I was done attempting to scrutinize him.

Then there were his words from earlier. He said that _I would have died had he not brought me here. _

I resigned myself to die. I had given myself up to the flames; waiting for one of nature's furies to devour me like it had my pursuers. And yet here I was talking to this man who called himself a _god._

_Well... _

"You don't believe me, do you?"

"I have seriously got to question the sanity of anyone who believed a story like _that _right off the bat," I said in exasperation. "But if it's any consolation, you look the part. A sparkly typical story book hero on a quest to save a wayward princess."

I would have reveled in the flabbergasted expression on his face, but right now I was more focused on something else.

I rubbed my temples, trying to calm down the furious force that was trying to drill a hole from inside my head. Ugh, I was used to headaches thanks to my hectic lifestyle, but this had to be the worst one I'd experienced yet.

It's what I get for running on pure adrenaline and chocolate and granola bars for the past few weeks, I suppose. It didn't help that the guy decked out in the medieval era clothing was dropping this information overload on me right now.

Something brushed against my head lightly and I stiffened; without my noticing, Ares had somehow gotten far closer than I have ever let anyone get to me for a long time. I would have pushed him away, tried to put some distance between us, if it wasn't for what happened next.

One minute my migraine was tearing my mind from the inside out and the next, it was gone. Completely and utterly gone and I could think straight again. And if that wasn't mind blowing enough, I felt completely refreshed. Gone were the black spots that invaded my vision. Gone was the exhaustion that threatened to forcefully shut down my mind and send me to the land of unconsciousness.

"Eh." I said intelligently as Ares removed his hand from the top of my head.

"There. Your headache should be gone and I have relieved you of your tiredness."

I didn't believe it. He was right; the pain wasn't there any more. It usually took two pills, a wet cloth, and lying down on the couch to get rid of the damned symptom. He just touched my head and I didn't want to puke any more.

...

...

...Dammit.

"...fine. I believe you."

The guy just took away my headache with a mere touch. This was the kind of thing that Jehovah, creator of the universe, could easily pull off and then proceed to resurrect someone from the dead.

And there was the fact that I was also... here.

I could have been more stubborn about the matter, but I could tell that he was going to keep me here until I believed him. And honestly, it would be stupid to try and convince myself otherwise when he just pulled something of a miracle right in front of me. I was stubborn and skeptical; not incredibly narrow-minded.

"But even if you're a _god_," I crossed my arms. "What do you want? I highly doubt you saved me from the explosion because you were feeling lonely and wanted someone to have tea with."

Ares' lips quirked at that. "I assure you that we would not summon people for such a minor pastime, though the thought is entertaining."

Great. I'm giving gods ideas.

"...so getting back to why you decided to pull me out of that burning warehouse?" I said, wanting to get straight to the point and out of... the area between dimensions that Ares brought me to. "You brought me here for a reason and I want to know why."

"Straight to the point. Most people in your place would be hysterical about the situation. Then again, you are hardly what one would consider _'most people'._" His eyes saddened at this, but he didn't push the issue.

Unless most people became assassins during childhood, then no, I was not 'most people'.

"Very well. The reason I brought you here is because I need your help."

I stared very, very hard at him.

Come again?

"What." I finally managed.

A _god _of all people summons _me _to some sort of alternate dimension because he _needs_ _my help_.

"Okay," I began when my brain started again. "I think you've got the wrong person."

Because he should really be summoning your atypical idiot hero who fights for justice and the light; not an assassin who worked under the cover of the night and money off of taking other peoples' lives when they were least expecting it.

"Your name is Isabelle Hero Maxwell, am I correct? You were born to a Canadian father and a Filipino mother and you have a sister who is older than you by nine years and lived in the Sunshine Coast until you were five."

I growled. I did not like people calling me by my full name and I did not like how he just casually mentioned my family and past with it.

"Yeah. Never use all three names together again."

"Then I have the right person."

"Okay, fine. But _why me _of all people? I'm sure that there are thousands of people out there much more qualified for whatever job you have in mind. Not to mention that you're a _freaking god._"

Ares sighed. His emerald green eyes were skyward and I got the impression he was losing his patience from talking with me. I knew that pissing off someone who could smite you in seconds was a bad idea, but there was no way in hell that I was going to agree to whatever he needed me for without knowing exactly what it entailed. Knowledge, as much as being able to read people, made all the difference.

"Gods, unfortunately, have their limitations when it comes to dealing with the affairs of the mortal realm. So no, no matter how much it pains me not to, I cannot interfere. But that does not mean that I cannot indirectly interfere by-" He paused, his eyes telling me that he was uncertain of how to go about the next part.

"You need me to do your dirty work for you." I said flatly.

"That is not how I would put it... but yes."

My first thought was to say_ no. _I couldn't believe it. Even a god wanted to hire me to do his dirty work for him!

I was _sick and tired _of always having to do someone else's bidding. If it wasn't following the instructions of my adopted parents when they were explaining to me how a weapon worked or how to kill someone to make it look like an accident, then it was being ordered to take someone out of the picture or to go and steal an important document.

But the rational side of my mind, the logical part, told me that in this dimension I had to play by his rules. It was he who dictated what would fly and what would not in this place.

I was not going to be able to talk myself out of this.

"Isabelle." He seemed to get that I was not a happy camper. "I know of you. I know of what has happened in your life. I know how much you have suffered."

"I don't need your pity. I know just how much my life has sucked up until now, alright?" I snapped at him. If he thought that he would get me on board by sympathizing with me, he was dead wrong.

"But I also know that you are a good person deep inside."

I stared at him.

"I assassinate people. How is that a trait for a good person?"

Ares sighed again.

"Heroes are not as pure as you think. They kill people as well. But the reasons in doing so differentiate from their much darker and twisted counter parts." He paused, looking at me. When it was apparent that I wasn't going to say anything, he continued. "The line between hero and villain is blurred and not straight forward. A hero can easily fall into the darkness of their hearts and become the very type of person they once hunted. Those who committed atrocities in their past can switch to the side of good and atone for their misdeeds."

"Just what are you trying to get at?" I growled.

"That you are not as evil as you think you are." The god smiled. "You do not like innocents and bystanders getting caught in the middle of other people's conflicts. You deny taking on the jobs of assassinating good individuals, even if the target has a king's ransom on their heads. You do not condone senseless killing. Within you," He smirked, "burns the strong flame of justice. You do not just kill for money, but for the fact that the targets have also done atrocious deeds, and have gotten away with what they have done for too long. You go after those who think they are above the law and rage against those who amuse in senseless killing."

The silence that followed his spiel was deafening.

"...what do you want me to do?" I asked, wanting to do nothing more but bang my head against a brick wall.

I give up. Going along with what this guy wanted would be so much easier than staying here and throwing every reason I could come up with on why it was a bad idea for him to be asking _me of all people _for help. He shot down every argument I had with a stronger counterargument. I may have been tired of always having to do someone else's work, but I was also getting pretty tired of standing around arguing with this guy.

Ares struck me as the type not to take _no _for an answer. He wouldn't shoot me if I kept saying 'I don't want to', but I was certain that he had other ways of getting what he wanted.

Like annoying the person until she finally said _yes _just to get him to shut up.

He smiled triumphantly, making me scowl. Two seconds later though, I found myself gaping when he spoke.

"I want you to change destiny."

* * *

**...Isabelle was originally supposed to have finished conversing with Ares in this chapter, but then I thought the chapter would be tedious and decided to end it here and continue in the next. Don't worry, it'll be picked up in the next chapter. And hopefully Isabelle will appear just in time to save Cloud!**

**So what did you guys think of this action packed chapter? And Isabelle arguing with a god? Cause yes, she just did argue with a god. **

**Please leave reviews! I love hearing your input!**


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